Management Information Systems MANAGING THE DIGITAL FIRM, 12 TH EDITION GLOBAL EDITION. Chapter 5 IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Transcription

1 MANAGING THE DIGITAL FIRM, 12 TH EDITION GLOBAL EDITION Chapter 5 IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

2 IT infrastructure: Management Information Systems IT Infrastructure Set of physical devices and software required to operate enterprise Set of firmwide services including: Computing platforms providing computing services Telecommunications services Data management services Application software services Physical facilities management services IT management, standards, education, research and development services Service platform perspective more accurate view of value of investments 2

3 IT Infrastructure Evolution of IT infrastructure General-purpose mainframe & minicomputer era: 1959 to present 1958 IBM first mainframes introduced 1965 Less expensive DEC minicomputers introduced Personal computer era: 1981 to present 1981 Introduction of IBM PC Proliferation in 80s, 90s resulted in growth of personal software Client/server era: 1983 to present Desktop clients networked to servers, with processing work split between clients and servers Network may be two-tiered or multitiered (N-tiered) Various types of servers (network, application, Web) 3

4 IT Infrastructure Evolution of IT infrastructure (cont.) Enterprise computing era: 1992 to present Move toward integrating disparate networks, applications using Internet standards and enterprise applications Cloud Computing: 2000 to present Refers to a model of computing where firms and individuals obtain computing power and software applications over the Internet or other network Fastest growing form of computing 4

5 IT Infrastructure Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution Moore s law (1965) and microprocessing power Computing power doubles every 18 months Nanotechnology: May shrink size of transistors to width of several atoms Contrary factors: Heat dissipation needs, power consumption concerns Law of Mass Digital Storage The amount of data being stored each year doubles 5

6 IT Infrastructure MOORE S LAW AND MICROPROCESSOR PERFORMANCE Packing over 2 billion transistors into a tiny microprocessor has exponentially increased processing power. Processing power has increased to over 500,000 MIPS (millions of instructions per second). FIGURE 5-4 6

7 IT Infrastructure FALLING COST OF CHIPS Packing more transistors into less space has driven down transistor cost dramatically as well as the cost of the products in which they are used. FIGURE 5-5 7

8 IT Infrastructure THE COST OF STORING DATA DECLINES EXPONENTIALLY Since the first magnetic storage device was used in 1955, the cost of storing a kilobyte of data has fallen exponentially, doubling the amount of digital storage for each dollar expended every 15 months, on average. FIGURE 5-7 8

9 IT Infrastructure Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution (cont.) Metcalfe s Law and network economics Value or power of a network grows exponentially as a function of the number of network members As network members increase, more people want to use it (demand for network access increases) 9

10 IT Infrastructure Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution (cont.) Declining communication costs and the Internet An estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide have Internet access As communication costs fall toward a very small number and approach 0, utilization of communication and computing facilities explodes 10

11 IT Infrastructure EXPONENTIAL DECLINES IN INTERNET COMMUNICATIONS COSTS FIGURE 5-8 One reason for the growth in the Internet population is the rapid decline in Internet connection and overall communication costs. The cost per kilobit of Internet access has fallen exponentially since Digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modems now deliver a kilobit of communication for a retail price of around 2 cents. 11

12 IT Infrastructure Technology drivers of infrastructure evolution (cont.) Standards and network effects Technology standards: Specifications that establish the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network Unleash powerful economies of scale and result in price declines as manufacturers focus on the products built to a single standard 12

13 Infrastructure Components IT Infrastructure has 7 main components 1. Computer hardware platforms 2. Operating system platforms 3. Enterprise software applications 4. Data management and storage 5. Networking/telecommunications platforms 6. Internet platforms 7. Consulting system integration services 13

14 Infrastructure Components Consulting and system integration services Even large firms do not have resources for a full range of support for new, complex infrastructure Software integration: ensuring new infrastructure works with legacy systems Legacy systems: older TPS created for mainframes that would be too costly to replace or redesign 14

15 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends The emerging mobile digital platform Cell phones, smartphones (BlackBerry, iphone) Have assumed data transmission, Web surfing, and IM duties Netbooks: ( 輕薄筆電 ) Small, low-cost lightweight notebooks optimized for wireless communication and core computing tasks Tablets (ipad) Networked e-readers (Kindle) 15

16 Grid computing Management Information Systems Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends Connects geographically remote computers into a single network to combine processing power and create virtual supercomputer Provides cost savings, speed, agility Virtualization (ex. VMware) 利用軟體模擬實體電腦的虛擬機器 (VM), 達成一部實體機器上同時執行多種作業系統 Reduces hardware and power expenditures Facilitates hardware centralization 16

17 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends Cloud computing (utility computing) On-demand (utility) computing services obtained over network Infrastructure as a service Platform as a service Software as a service Cloud can be public or private Allows companies to minimize IT investments Drawbacks: Concerns of security, reliability 17

18 Contemporary Hardware Platform Trends Green computing Practices and technologies for manufacturing, using, disposing of computing and networking hardware Autonomic computing Industry-wide effort to develop systems that can configure, heal themselves when broken, and protect themselves from outside intruders Similar to self-updating antivirus software; Apple and Microsoft both use automatic updates High performance, power-saving processors Multi-core processors 18

19 Contemporary Software Platform Trends Linux and open-source software Open-source software: Produced by community of programmers, free and modifiable by user Linux: Open-source software OS Software for the Web Java: Object-oriented programming language Operating system, processor-independent Ajax Asynchronous JavaScript and XML Allows client and server to exchange small pieces of data without requiring the page to be reloaded 19

20 Contemporary Software Platform Trends Web Services Software components that exchange information using Web standards and languages XML: Extensible Markup Language More powerful and flexible than HTML Tagging allows computers to process data automatically SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol Rules for structuring messages enabling applications to pass data and instructions WSDL: Web Services Description Language Framework for describing Web service and capabilities UDDI: Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration Directory for locating Web services 20

21 關係 : web service 的服務端將 web service 撰寫好並撰寫或產生 WSDL 語言用以描述該 service, 並將 WSDL 向 UDDI 註冊,service 的 client 端則透過 UDDI 查詢並找尋所要的 web service, 再下載該 service 的 WSDL 檔案, 由於 WSDL 含該 service 的介面, 因此 client 端便可以呼叫 service, 所有的動作底層都是透過 SOAP 協定來傳輸所有的請求

22 Contemporary Software Platform Trends SOA: Service-oriented architecture Collection of Web services to build a firm s software system ( 一種將不同技術平台開發的應用軟體 (eg. Legacy systems) 串接在一起的架構 ) Set of self-contained services that communicate with each other to create a working software application Software developers reuse these services in other combinations to assemble applications as needed Dollar Rent A Car Uses Web services to link online booking system with Southwest Airlines Web site 22

23 Contemporary Software Platform Trends Software outsourcing and cloud services Three external sources for software: 1. Software packages and enterprise software 2. Software outsourcing (domestic or offshore) Domestic:» Primarily for middleware, integration services, software support Offshore:» Primarily for lower level maintenance, data entry, call centers, although outsourcing for new-program development is increasing 23

24 Contemporary Software Platform Trends Three external sources for software (cont.) 3. Cloud-based software services Software as a service (SaaS) Accessed with Web browser over Internet Ranges from free or low-cost services for individuals to business and enterprise software Users pay on subscription or per-transaction E.g. Salesforce.com Service Level Agreements (SLAs): formal agreement with service providers 24

25 Contemporary Software Platform Trends CHANGING SOURCES OF FIRM SOFTWARE In 2010, U.S. firms will spend over $265 billion on software. About 40 percent of that ($106 billion) will originate outside the firm, either from enterprise software vendors selling firmwide applications or individual application service providers leasing or selling software modules. Another 10 percent ($10 billion) will be provided by SaaS vendors as an online cloud-based service. FIGURE

26 Contemporary Software Platform Trends Software outsourcing and cloud services (cont.) Mashups Combinations of two or more online applications, such as combining mapping software (Google Maps) with local content Apps Small pieces of software that run on the Internet, on your computer, or on your cell phone iphone, BlackBerry, Android Generally delivered over the Internet 26

27 Management Issues Dealing with platform and infrastructure change As firms shrink or grow, IT needs to be flexible and scalable Scalability: Ability to expand to serve larger numbers of users For mobile computing and cloud computing New policies and procedures for managing these new platforms Contractual agreements with firms running clouds and distributing software required 27

28 Management and governance Who controls IT infrastructure? How should IT department be organized? Centralized Management Issues Central IT department makes decisions Decentralized Business unit IT departments make own decisions How are costs allocated between divisions, departments? 28

29 Management Issues Making wise infrastructure investments Amount to spend on IT is complex question Rent vs. buy, outsourcing Total cost of ownership (TCO) model Analyzes direct and indirect costs Hardware, software account for only about 20% of TCO Other costs: Installation, training, support, maintenance, infrastructure, downtime, space and energy TCO can be reduced through use of cloud services, greater centralization and standardization of hardware and software resources 29